Planned repairs to the roof of the pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park are not in violation of a demand by the National Park Service that work there remain on hold until the federal agency sorts through plans for a fine dining restaurant and rooftop bar at the facility, according to an NPS official.

But an official with the non-profit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, said her agency needs to make sure any work done on the pavilion is not in contradiction with the NPS's earlier demand.

Because the state park receives grant money through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, the plans for the pavilion, being undertaken by Pavilion Partners led by Valparaiso businessman Chuck Williams, must undergo review by the NPS.

The NPS will determine whether the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has to abide by a land conversion for the project, which requires providing land of equal value to make up for any lost from recreational purposes, so it remains in compliance with the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act.

The work on the roof is to shore up temporary patches that were put there after Pavilion Partners removed air conditioning units last year, said Dan Bortner, the DNR's director of parks and reservoirs.

"The roof repairs are the result of removing the air conditioning units and such from the roof structure," he said in an email. "As Pavilion Partners prepare for the actual construction phase of the interior of the pavilion they will need to make the permanent repairs to the roof."

Bortner has said that work could begin this fall.

Pavilion Partners is in a public/private partnership with DNR to renovate the pavilion and build an adjacent, 17,000-square-foot banquet center for $18,000 a year. The state park recently received a liquor license, allowing plans for a fine dining restaurant and rooftop bar at the pavilion to move forward if the project is approved by the NPS.

Paula Dinerstein, senior counsel for PEER, learned of the roof work Tuesday in a letter from an NPS official, who said the federal agency gave DNR permission to begin the roof repairs after Labor Day weekend.

NPS officials contacted the DNR in mid-June to say that work on the pavilion could not continue until the DNR submitted the project to the federal agency for approval. Pavilion Partners had the pavilion gutted last year and put in an elevator shaft, as well as building exterior bathrooms.

Word of the roof work set off concerns, Dinerstein said.

"We said, wait a minute. Let's see the plans for this and make sure they're not non-complaint," she said. "There has to be a contract for the roof work and what they're going to do, and that should be made public."

Roger Knowlton, outdoor recreation planner for the NPS regional office in Omaha, said in an email to Dinerstein and the Post-Tribune that NPS officials met with DNR officials for a tour of the pavilion on Aug. 23 to better understand the site and the proposed project.

DNR officials asked for and received permission to "button up the pavilion for the winter starting after Labor Day" during the visit, Knowlton said, including repairing the roof so it doesn't leak.

"These are general maintenance activities that grantees are expected to do to maintain park facilities," Knowlton said. "We do not believe this work is intended to provide the foundation for any future 'uses' of the roof and as such our concurrence does not represent a reversal of our previous position."

The NPS should not have let any of the work on the pavilion go forward until all the legal requirements of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act were fulfilled, Dinerstein said, adding the more money that's invested in the pavilion, the more difficult it is to pull back.

"We will be relieved if it is just basic maintenance but given all the circumstances, we should be able to see the plan for what they're going to do," she said.